A communications network is any system or mechanism that provides for the exchange of information or data between participants. As used herein, the term “participant” refers to any device or mechanism that exchanges data with other devices or mechanisms over a communications medium. In some communications networks, one of the participants is designated as a master participant. The master participant performs one or more functions that are assigned to only the master participant and not to other participants. For example, a master participant may initiate and manage communications with other participants. As another example, the master participant may select a particular frequency hopping scheme to be used in the communications network. In communications networks with a master participant, the other participants are conventionally referred to as slave participants. Communications networks that use a master participant conventionally use only a single master participant, with any number of slave participants. Master participants are typically elected from available slave participants according to a selection or voting algorithm.
Using only a single master participant can have numerous drawbacks. In particular, if for any reason the master participant cannot perform its assigned functions, then the communications network will not function and the participants will not be able to communicate with each other. Master participant may not be able to perform their assigned functions for a variety of reasons. For example, in a wireless communications network with mobile participants, the master participant may move out of range of one or more slave participants, or vice versa. As another example, the master participant's power supply may drop below a minimum threshold or the master participant may otherwise fail. In any of these situations, the slave participants must first recognize that the master participant can no longer perform its assigned functions. Once the slave participants have made this determination, a new master participant must be selected from the available slave participants. Once the new master participant is selected, the functions assigned to the prior master participant must be assigned to the new master participant. Given that a master participant may fail at any time for a variety of reasons, either or both of these tasks may require a significant amount of time and computational resources and cause a significant disruption to the communications network.
Based on the need for wireless communications and the limitations in the conventional approaches, an approach for transferring management functions between participants that does not suffer from the limitations of the prior approaches is highly desirable.